Analyst Explains Salesforce (CRM) AI Edge Over Competitors, Sets $440 Price Target

We recently published a list of Top 10 Stocks on Analysts’ Radar These Days. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Salesforce Inc (NYSE:CRM) stands against other top stocks on analysts’ radar these days.

Fundstrat’s Tom Lee said in a recent program on CNBC that he is still optimistic about the stock market despite recent selloffs. Here is how he explained some of the reasons behind his rationale:

“I can understand why investors are sitting on their hands. I mean, they don’t really know how severe these tariffs are going to be or how long they’ll last. But now we’re seeing a big price correction and a decline in sentiment. Then something like today happens—we get a bad ADP jobs report, and the market is actually up. So we’re rising on bad news, which is a good sign that a lot of bad news is already priced in.”

Lee believes the market’s near-term bottom is close as he talked about the importance of staying invested during the “best days.”

“In my mind, we put out a piece yesterday just talking about the 10 best days that happen every year. Last year, for instance, the 10 best days added up to 21 percentage points of the S&P. Without those 10 days, the market was only up 4%. So, you know, you don’t get 20% years because it’s good throughout the year—it’s just the 10 best days. I think the setup for a 10 best day is near because if the economy’s near stall speed, I think people realize the Trump put does come back because otherwise it has to unwind all this austerity. And if the job market’s soft, the Fed put comes back into play because the Fed doesn’t want to deal with stall speed.I think that’s what’s going to be the positive catalyst in the next couple of weeks. On top of that, we already know stocks will bottom before bad news peaks. So if we’re seeing the market not fade on bad news, it means we’ve already priced in a lot of things that would normally scare us.”

READ ALSO: 7 Best Stocks to Buy For Long-Term and 8 Cheap Jim Cramer Stocks to Invest In

For this article, we picked 10 stocks currently trending on the latest news. With each stock we have mentioned the number of hedge fund investors. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).

Analyst Explains Salesforce (CRM) AI Edge Over Competitors, Sets $440 Price Target

A customer service team in an office setting using the company’s Customer 360 platform to communicate with customers.

Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)

Number of Hedge Funds Investors: 116

Jackson Ader, Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets, explained in a latest program on CNBC why he continues to be bullish on Salesforce Inc (NYSE:CRM) following the latest quarterly report. The analyst has a $440 price target on the stock.

“I really like that Salesforce has a very specific use case in the front office. It’s not—it’s very easily definable. I would like this sales agent to give me a hundred new leads. I would like this marketing agent to write me some marketing copy so that I can send an automated email to a certain targeted list. The difference here is that Salesforce has very definable use cases, definable agents that can be deployed quickly, and then they also have the data underlying it in the Salesforce Data Cloud, where the agents can actually become very smart and use the Data Cloud as the retrieval-augmented generation model to then go out and do smart things, rather than a blanket of “I’m going to help you do your knowledge work with it,” which is sometimes what some of their other competitors are trying to roll out.”

Mar Vista Global Quality Strategy stated the following regarding Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:

“Investors cheered a solid fiscal year Q3 performance from Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM), with results driven by strength in subscription revenues, current remaining performance obligations (CRPO), and operating margin. Both the Sales and Service Clouds returned to double-digit growth, fueled by strong adoption of multi-cloud and vertical-specific solutions. These results highlight Salesforce’s ability to address diverse customer needs and sustain growth across its core offerings.

Management expressed significant excitement about Agentforce, an organically developed generative AI product that is garnering enthusiasm from both system integrator partners and customers alike. This innovation underscores Salesforce’s commitment to delivering innovative solutions that enhance customer engagement and drive productivity. While Agentforce’s contributions to subscription revenues and CRPO bookings are still immaterial for now, the growing pipeline provides a solid foundation for optimism around Salesforce’s ability to productize and monetize its generative AI offerings.”

Overall, CRM ranks 4th on our list of top stocks on analysts’ radar these days. While we acknowledge the potential of CRM as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that under the radar AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than CRM but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.